Rats!
by An Overexcited IceWing
Summary: Cedarpaw and Birchpaw went to go gather moss, when they get attacked by, you guessed it, rats. Monthly challenge for SolarClan.


Cedarpaw twitched his tail and narrowed his leaf-green eyes. He dug his claws into the sandy ground of ShadowClan camp. He slowly stalked forward until he was hidden behind a large, hollow, pine stump that was used as the apprentice's den. _She won't find me here. _Cedarpaw thought.

He heard a playful yowl from behind him as he was pushed to the ground. "Got ya!" Birchpaw, Cedarpaw's best friend, meowed. She let him stand up, and Cedarpaw shook out all the sand from his dark brown tabby pelt.

"Yeah, you did. But I'll win next time though." He said confidently. An annoyed growl came from Cedarpaw's mentor who was laying a few tail-lengths away from the fresh-kill pile.

"All you apprentices ever do is play. Both of you, go collect some moss for the elders." Dewfrost. ordered, twitching her pale gray tail in annoyance.

Cedarpaw sighed while Birchpaw meowed defiantly, "You're not my mentor! Badgerfur is!"

Dewfrost narrowed her eyes. "Badgerfur is in the medicine cat's den. I'm sure he would do something similar. Go get some moss." She repeated. Birchpaw muttered something and walked out of camp, Cedarpaw following her. "And watch out for rats!" Dewfrost hollered after them. Cedarpaw shuddered. About a half moon ago, a rat attack on a border patrol had landed Birchpaw's mentor in the medicine cat's den.

As they walked to the large pine tree by the lake where all the moss was gathered, Birchpaw grumbled about the unfairness of it all. "I can't believe your mentor can just order me around!" she meowed.

"Well, she is a senior warrior." Cedarpaw pointed out.

"Hmph." Birchpaw growled. They weren't even half way to the mossy tree when the gray and white apprentice suddenly stopped.

"Huh? Why are we stopping?" Cedarpaw asked.

"Shh!" Birchpaw whispered. He sat down, puzzled. Then he saw it. An old raven was resting a few fox-lengths away from them, facing away from the two apprentices. It had one gnarled foot on a dead rat it was currently stripping the meat from.

Birchpaw dropped into a crouch and slowly stalked towards it. When she was about a tail-length away from the raven, she pounced. The raven cawed and flapped it's wings wildly. One of the wings smacked Birchpaw's face, and she lost her grip. The raven tried to fly away, but it's wing appeared to be broken. It gave up flying and tried to limp into some undergrowth.

_Oh no you don't! _Cedarpaw ran at it and knocked the raven over. With a swift bite to the neck, the raven was dead. Cedarpaw felt a little sorry for it. He shook his head. _What kind of ShadowClan cat am I, feeling sorry for prey? _He scorned himself.

"Great catch Cedarpaw!" Birchpaw meowed.

"You did most of it." He said modestly. Cedarpaw picked up the raven. "Come on, we still need to get moss." He meowed through a mouthful of feathers. He padded towards the mossy tree, Birchpaw close behind. The wing tips of the raven dragged behind him and left two long trails in the dirt.

As they reached the mossy tree, Cedarpaw set down the raven and started scraping moss of the bark. Birchpaw padded over to him and also started gathering moss.

After they had gathered a few pawfuls of moss, Birchpaw asked, "How much moss-" her words were cut off by a large rat jumping on her. She shrieked in surprise and Cedarpaw's eyes widened. He lunged forwards and swiped off Birchpaw's back. The rat wasn't giving up that easily though. It launched itself at Cedarpaw and fastened it's teeth into his shoulder. He ripped the rat off his shoulder and shook it until the rat went limp.

Cedarpaw smiled, but Birchpaw was still staring at it. "What?" the dark brown tabby asked. "I killed it."

Birchpaw looked at him fearfully. "Rats don't travel alone. Where there's one, there's always about twenty more." She meowed. As if to answer her words, they heard a loud rustling sound in a nearby bush. They whipped their heads towards the sound as a whole pack of rats exploded from the bush.

One latched on to Cedarpaw's face and a terrible pain erupted along the left side of his face. Another two rats were on top of his back, trying to knock him over. Cedarpaw managed to catch a glimpse of Birchpaw, who was suffering the same fate. He struggled and hissed, reminding himself of the raven they had caught earlier. A large rat dug his yellow teeth into Cedarpaw's leg, causing the apprentice to stumble. Cedarpaw fell over, hitting his head on a rock.

"Help…" he managed to yowl before he passed out.

"They should be awake by now"

"That eye looks pretty bad."

Cedarpaw sleepily blinked open his eye. He moaned in pain and scented the air. Instead of a light, refreshing, pine smell, he scented the strong, bitter scent of herbs. _What happened? _He looked next to him. His friend Birchpaw was sleeping, her pretty gray and white fur matted in blood. Memories came flooding back to him. _Rats._

"Oh good, he's awake." A voice meowed. Cedarpaw turned to see a small ginger she-cat padding towards him. "We were wondering if you were ever going to wake up." She joked.

Cedarpaw sat up painfully. "Where am I?" he moaned.

"You're in ThunderClan's medicine cat's den." She replied. Cedarpaw blinked. _ThunderClan? _He wondered. _Why am I in ThunderClan?_

The medicine cat seemed to have guessed his thoughts. "A ThunderClan border patrol spotted you and your friend. They fought off the rats and brought you here." She explained. "I'm Flamefur by the way."

"I'm Cedarpaw." He told her. Cedarpaw tried to smile, but the left side of his face felt strangely stiff. "Why does my face feel stiff?" he asked.

Flamefur inhaled sharply and bit her lip. "Follow me, I'll show you." She meowed, leading him out of the den. Cedarpaw got up and limped after her. She led him to a small, shallow puddle. "Alright, now before you look in, I'm just going to let you know that you are not going to see." She warned. Cedarpaw gulped and nervously peered in. What he saw shocked him.

His eye was gone.

As he gasped in horror, Flamefur walked up next to him. "You've lost an eye." She told him gently.

Cedarpaw whipped his head towards her. "No Foxdung I've lost an eye!" he retorted. Flamefur looked down at her paws. He stared down at his reflection. Around where his eye had been, blood had matted his fur.

"Is Birchpaw okay?" Cedarpaw asked. Flamefur looked back up at him.

"Your friend? She's got cuts and bruises all over, but she'll heal." She replied.

Cedarpaw smiled at her. "Thanks for healing us, Flamefur. It means lot for ThunderClan to help us." He meowed sincerely.

Flamefur smiled back at him and nodded, as if to say that it was no problem. Cedarpaw sighed and trudged back to the medicine cat's den.

He saw Birchpaw curled up in a moss nest, snoring gently. She looked so peaceful. He twitched his tail and curled up next to her. _I'll protect you, no matter what. _Was his last thought before Cedarpaw drifted back into sleep.


End file.
